PS decries lack of skills, equipment for water drilling

By Sylivester Domasa

14th April 2012

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The government has that said lack of requisite skills and facilities in private water well drilling companies is detrimental to social progress.

Speaking at the opening of a joint coordination committee of groundwater development and management capacity development project workshop in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water Christopher Sayi Tanzania was endowed with plenty of ground water resources but due to various reasons, only 12 per cent of them were exploited.

“In 1998 the Ministry of Water transformed the drilling section into a fully-fledged government agency - Drilling and Dam Construction Agency (DDCA). A combined average outputs of wells drilled annually by DDCA and private companies is about 1,000 wells with 600 wells drilled by private companies alone,” he said.

The workshop brought together key stakeholders including officials from the Ministry of Water, experts, directors of water resources and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supporting the implementation of the project in the country.

The ratio of water wells drilled is below 2,000 water wells required per year in the country.

Eng Sayi said the project aimed at enhancing the capacity of DDCA to support the drilling of water wells in the country. For his part, JICA Tanzania Office chief representative Yukihide Katsuta said for four years since this year JICA Tanzania would implement the project and spend US$400 million.

“I understand that the government of Tanzania wishes to enhance capacity of the private sector through equipment hiring and technical support via the DDCA, which is a new role of JICA Tanzania,” he said.

He, however, noted that JICA would enhance DDCA’s capacity to impart techniques and skills regarding water well drilling to the private drilling sector and establish a system of hiring drilling equipment and machinery.

The 2002 water policy provides participation of the private sector in the development of water resources in the country in recognition of their role of contributing to the development and utilisation of the nation’s available groundwater resources.